Field
The present disclosure relates to a power supply control apparatus, a vehicle and a method of controlling a power supply.
Related Art
JP 2013-103514A describes a hybrid vehicle configured to perform “batteryless drive control” to be driven in a state that a battery is disconnected from a motor and a generator in the case of a failure of the battery. The batteryless drive control causes the generator to generate electric power with feedback control of the throttle position of an engine to make the rotation speed of the engine approach to a target value, and drives the motor with the electric power generated by the generator, so as to drive the vehicle. JP 2013-103514A also discloses a technique of enhancing the responsiveness of the feedback control of the throttle position during batteryless drive control, in order to prevent the voltage of a power supply system from becoming unstable during high-speed drive.
The latest vehicle may be equipped with both high-voltage auxiliary machinery operated at high voltage and low-voltage auxiliary machinery operated at low voltage. When the power consumption of the high-voltage auxiliary machinery rapidly increases or decreases during batteryless drive control, the voltage of the high-voltage system is likely to be rapidly varied with this rapid increase or decrease of the power consumption and to deviate from its allowable range. The same applies when the power consumption of the low-voltage auxiliary machinery is rapidly varied. The technique of enhancing the responsiveness of the feedback control of the throttle position described in JP 2013-103514A fails to sufficiently reduce such a variation in the voltage of the high-voltage system. The voltage of the high-voltage system is thus likely to deviate from the allowable range. This problem is not limited to the hybrid vehicle but is commonly found in any vehicle having two power supply systems, i.e., a high-voltage system and a low-voltage system.